Roderick estimated Johnson [the cop] was going 75 mph as he sped through the intersection, while Chan [the non-cop], who says he stopped at the stop sign before going through the intersection, was traveling 22 mph.

While both men were allegedly legally drunk at the time of the crash, the Middlesex district attorney's office charged Chan with motor-vehicle homicide under the contributory-negligence law.

Yeah. And the cop-suckers here wonder why people want nothing to do with cops, and call on them only out of desperation.

I know this kind of stuff is frowned up here, but you can google up Princeton Blvd and Foster St in Lowell MA and actually see the scene of the accident. The motorcycle was heading down Princeton and the car was on Foster. My opinion is that only a moron would drive 75 MPH on Princeton there.

Both definitely guilty, but circumstances should give some leniency to the defendant given that the other guy was also very drunk AND driving like a maniac. Either way the guy's life is probably ruined. Don't drive drunk, people. An expensive cab ride is way more preferable than the chance of a DUI or killing someone.

The question should be who was drunk or drunker but who violated the established rules of right of way.

A little searching finds that it was at foster st & Princeton Boulevard in Lowell, MA. From google street view only Foster has stop signs. Visibility down Princeton from the stop line in either direction isn't good enough to pick up a motorcycle traveling at 75mph at night IMO. In the day nosing out to get a good look, yes. Look for yourselves, it's just two residential streets with Princeton being the major street.

They are trying to guess the speed of the accused's car. 22mph at the far side of the intersection is not unreasonable for healthy rate of acceleration, but where did this 22mph figure come from? It has to be some weird cop math because there isn't a way I am aware of to determine it. They could figure out the motorcycle's speed from skid marks, impact damage, and such, but the honda's speed leaves no evidence to determine it with any confidence level of value. Probably 22mph +/- 10mph or something like that.

The Honda driver says he stopped. There is no evidence otherwise besides some bizarro math a cop came up with.

So let's say this was two sober non-cops. What happens? Even though the Honda driver should have yielded to traffic on Princeton, the dead motorcyclist going a provable 75mph is held at fault because it is considered to be unreasonable to pick up traffic going two and half times the posted speed limit on a residential street. especially a motorcycle (small) at night (less visibility).

Except it wasn't two sober people it was a mundane with a BAC level greater than the arbitrary value of 0.08 and a cop with a BAC level greater than that same value. So people start changing reality to fit their belief system. Thus the Honda driver is going to prison.

vicejay:kingoomieiii: One more response- the motorcycle who hit him at 75 MPH was going so fast that it is A COMPLETELY REASONABLE SCENARIO that the guy stopped at the sign and looked both ways, saw the motorcycle very far away, misjudged its speed due to perspective, and though it was safe to enter the road.

It's harder to judge the speed of a vehicle that has just one headlight, as opposed to a vehicle with two headlights.

/just sayin'

go a step furtherI am pretty CERTAIN, that the person entering an intersection MUST yield to a car already in the intersection. period.

motorcycle T-BONE the car ....cop was at fault for entering the intersection

here is yet another interesting missing factHOW much of a skid mark was there from the motorcycle attempting to break? none? lots? we scrubbed the road so there is no evidence anymore??

WinoRhino:kingoomieiii: Drunk cop doing 75 on a motorcycle HITS drunk civilian who ran a stop signdoing 22 in a car. Civilian still tied up in court a year later.

Cop lost his life. This guy caused the accident. But because it's a cop, and all farkers hate cops, we should blame the cops. Not the guy who was also driving drunk and ran a stop sign causing the accident. Did I mention he caused the accident? Because he caused the accident.

One more response- the motorcycle who hit him at 75 MPH was going so fast that it is A COMPLETELY REASONABLE SCENARIO that the guy stopped at the sign and looked both ways, saw the motorcycle very far away, misjudged its speed due to perspective, and though it was safe to enter the road.

with great power comes great responsibilitywhy is it that we always see the reverse?why arent the other cops admitting that this cop severely negligent?why are they trying to place ALL of the blame on the victim?

75mph in a 30mph zone? I've NEVER been so drunk that I would find that to be a good idea. Never. Getting on a motorcycle while well over the legal limit is another lapse in judgement. 75 in a 30 WHILE drunk on a motorcycle? Holy shiat. Both drivers are at fault: they were drunk and they ignored traffic laws. The real controversy here is how that cop got to be on the force with judgement like that.

No, because that would mean admitting the cop was guilty. And that's the point.If it was two non-cops in a crash, then that's what they'd go for. But with the cops closing ranks around each other, this happens.

/seen it happen here too//also one case of a local "author" (who, in my opinion, made shiatty slang-filled 'local idiot flavor' parodies, but that's just my opinion) who got so blitzed she went the wrong way on the highway and duly got into a head-on collision with some other poor sucker who totally wasn't expecting that kind of complete screwup. News fell all over itself talking about how much of a tragedy it was that a 'local author killed in crash'...not 'local author got drunk as shiat and almost killed somebody else via spectacular intoxicated negligence, taking herself out in the process'

They were both drunk, but doing 75 in a 30 is reckless driving/reckless endangerment. That is more serious than running a stop sign. There is a lot of information missing in this article though. Probably got "misplaced" in the evidence room. The guy is getting railroaded.

vpb:unlikely: vpb: It isn't automatically the fault of whoever has the highest BAC regardless of circumstances.

75 in a 30 had nothing to do with it

No. It isn't a matter of who was going faster or who was drunker, it's a matter of who caused the accident.The case was all about whether the guy in the Honda ran the stop sign or not. The speed of the guy on the motorcycle has nothing to do with that.

well the guy on the motorcycle T-BONED the car at 74 miles an hour1) way over the legal limit2) illegally entered an intersection while there was cross traffic3) HIT vehicle in the intersection

yup cop was at fault and got the best punishment possible/we need to start a movement to get more cops to ride motorcycles drunk

They were both at fault since both were drunk. If the guy in the car hadn't run the stop sign, the cop wouldn't have plowed into him. If the cop weren't drunk, he would probably have been doing much less than 75. Then he would have arrived at the intersection later and probably after the other guy was gone. If the cop had survived the wreck, he would deserve to be fired and treated like any other person who did what he did.

GentDirkly:The accident may be Chan's fault, but suppose the cop was following the speed limit? He probably wouldn't have died. So it seems unfair to charge Chan with vehicular manslaughter. He should be charged with causing injury, not death.

There's some question as to whether or not he stopped at the stop sign. The prosecution's entire basis for saying he didn't is that his vehicle was supposedly traveling at 22mph when the impact occurred.

Without knowing how far away the impact site is from the stop sign he supposedly ran and the condition of the vehicle it's all speculation, but I can say that even my little brother's busted-ass I4 Comanche can get up to 25 mph before it clears a residential intersection from a full stop, and that thing is old and pokey.

I guess it's up to the defense to demonstrate that his car could at this point. If they do... yeah, he was drunk, but being drunk doesn't (or shouldn't) automatically make you at fault even if the other party was doing something phenomenally stupid and you were obeying traffic laws (save for the drunk part). It's not like a DUI conviction is a slap on the wrist that desperately needs additional punishment heaped atop it.

I_Am_Weasel:Chan was drunk. He shouldn't have been driving. Perhaps they're over zealous in going after him, but he was drinking and driving. My sympathy is little for either of them.

DUI is a lesser crime than the vehicular homicide. There's a lot of information missing here. Was it a 4 way stop? How far from the stop sign was the impact? Did they take into account the fact that an accelerating car is going to have a different set of properties in an accident as compared to a car holding steady at 22mph? They're awfully quick to say 'We don't know all the facts and have no reliable witnesses.' but then follow up with 'We know they ran the stop sign because of the coefficient of friction.' The fact that there's a stop sign says the speed limit probably isn't much higher than 45mph on that road anyway...someone going 75mph in a 45mph zone might very well be missed by someone that legally stopped and looked both ways.

I have little sympathy for drunk drivers, but we're going to read all about the just and moral cop who made a bad decision and the horrible murderer that set out to kill him.

The accident may be Chan's fault, but suppose the cop was following the speed limit? He probably wouldn't have died. So it seems unfair to charge Chan with vehicular manslaughter. He should be charged with causing injury, not death.